


finality

by annica13



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27367165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annica13/pseuds/annica13
Summary: Sixty feet away, Trent Ikithon speaks a single word."Bren."Caleb falls.
Relationships: The Mighty Nein & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 1
Kudos: 52





	finality

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this in one sitting and have no regrets.

Caleb watches Trent with a keen eye.

Caleb knows he is surrounded by friends. Both figuratively and literally.

In front of him stood Beauregard. To the right of her was Yasha and to the left was Fjord. To the right of Caleb stood Nott. To the left was Caduceus. Behind them were the tieflings. Jester and the recovered Mollymauk.

He's been through hell and high water with these folk. They've sailed oceans and crossed through a continent. They've fought fake gods and demigods. They've been through life and death.

They were his friends.

They had his back.

(There was no way to save for what came though.)

The first battle took exactly three minutes and twelve seconds. In his mind it felt like hours.

Trent had called, what had Caleb assumed, every single student that had graduated through his training. The Volstrucker had poured from every opening and it felt like it never was going to end. Luckily, they were prepared for a fight.

They each focused on one and then struck. Caleb himself had a difficult time focusing on one thing during the fight. (He cursed the old man for leaving as soon as it began.) Unicorns and beetles were swimming around and a demon falling through a portal.

Caleb had knew he had to ration the spells he cast as this was only the beginning but he threw that notion away to prevent any further damage to his friends. Who were all doing this for him. (For someone who didn't deserve it.)

Midway through, with relief, Caleb saw enter his former classmates. Astrid and Eadwulf, armed and ready to help. Their eyes connected and Caleb found a new strength within him. With a fire burning in his eyes, he continued.

Spells and blades and fists flew with fevered intensity. Each side knew only one would remain standing. There were close calls and fortunately for them, a few turn tails who had seen which way the wind was blowing. Caleb recognized the strategies that the Volstrucker were using as he too were taught the same ones. Good thing they planned for once.

The fight then spilled out of the great hall of the academy and into its hallways. They left scratches against the stone and acid on its walls on the place he had once called home. He really wished that this had not taken place here. It was nice to see it for the first time during a summer though.

After the dispatching the last batch, Caleb and group raced to where Caleb knew Trent was waiting. To the old man's old office.

The place where he and Astrid and Eadwulf were first sat down and offered a greater chance to serve their king. The place were it all began.

They had spells held and swords at the ready but found no further resistance at the pathway heading up. Chests heaving, scars in the processes of healing and magic pumping through their (some) veins, they stormed in.

When they first stepped through Caleb knew that something was very wrong. At first glance, the room was empty of people aside from Trent but the shadows were a wrong shade of black. There were over half a dozen Volstrucker waiting within the shadows.

Sixty feet away, Trent Ikithon releases the spell.

Five feet behind him, Caleb hears a sharp intake of breathe as Astrid and Eadwulf recognize the spell their former teacher holding in under his breathe.

Scattered from five to thirty feet in front of him were his friends who rushed in to engage with the remaining agents of the crown.

Time stops for a moment as he turns to look at his friends. A second stretching into eternity as he looks back in his mind the past year that he had spent with them.

He sees Beauregard. He recalls months of butting heads, late night researching in libraries and ranting about the empire. He looks and sees a sister.

He sees Fjord. He recalls the the trust they had put in him as their captain and the pact they had made together a million years ago in that lair.

He sees Caduceus. He recalls him being their guide after suffering their first loss and the effort he had put in to make sure they were always okay.

He sees Jester. He recalls her painting over the signs of shops wherever they went and polymorphing into animals.

He sees Yasha. He recalls a close shave inside a hollow tree and tips from a fellow introvert to another on dealing with large groups of people

He sees Mollymauk. He recalls a fallen friend whom they had failed to save and trying for a second chance when they got him back.

He sees Veth. He recalls the six months when all they had was each other. When they didn't know if they were going to make it to the next day but they were going to try. He sees his best friend.

Caleb lifts a hand to try and counter the spell when he feels dozens strands of magic suddenly hold him and his childhood friends in place.

Trent Ikithon speaks a single word.

_"Bren."_

Caleb Widogast falls.

**Author's Note:**

> in this story, caleb does die. not permanently though. either one of the clerics revives him and caleb spares trent for him to suffer. the story just stops there because caleb's the narrator and i didn't want to pick another person to narrate the fight with trent other than caleb.
> 
> also, yeah i wouldve loved to have essek or pumat or shakaste/keg/nila/other guests or any other of the nein's allies to have joined the fight, but i think it's much better to see if it was just the nein of them
> 
> also also i would like to believe that the nein would try to make most of their blows nonlethal. they know that all (maybe most) of the volstrucker had their memories modified like the blumentrio had.
> 
> please leave a review if you liked it! it's really appreciated!
> 
> tumblr is @the-caleb-widogast 
> 
> (specifics of the last fight:  
> caleb and friends rush in  
> six or so volstrucker agents were holding hold person to prevent the people who could counterspell in place (caleb, astrid, eadwulf)  
> trent was holding power word kill  
> fjord can counterspell but i think that fjord wouldn't even know what the spell was or can't recognize it immediately.)


End file.
